MIDDLE CLASSES VANISH
By
Les Armour
IQUIDATION, to кау
L' The least of it, is a
naughty word. IL conjures up visions of Georg! Malenkov, hammer in ONE hand and sickle in the pther, chasing kulaks acroHA Siberian sleppen.
Nevertheless, unless the figures lie, that seems to be the word for what has been happening to Britain's middle classes.
they
Happily (or otherwise) haven't been shot, shoved inlo salt mines, or reduced to a mental pulp. But they disappearing Junt the same
аге
Since 1038, their standards of Being have Taflen between 30
ral 60 percent--swcording
tu
ince slatinien which have Depart-
Just leaked out of the
inent of Inland Revenue.
...
The slice of the national in- come,
which they oner allegedly fattened! themselves the suburban paradises, has been awallowed by the working Plast. Working class standards have been rising-slowly and painfully, it in true, but rising all the same,
NET LOSSES
The man who earned £500 A yea is 10 ml so WIN Lock filled by se atalisticlans into the middle clowny would have to farn £1,000 in 1954 in onirg to keep hinvolt in the Sure
degree of comfort. Mostly.
scens, he will earn about £750 in 1054. In some casen he will get only the rame 000 corned in 1938.
}
to
The ranks of the E500 £750 n year boys have been
inereused by 1 percent since 1038. BUL there Are
16 percent mure In
only
the
class.
£750 to £1,000 4 year And, thereafter, the The m inockets chow net losses.
The increase in the bottom bracket of the "middle income" group is
probably due targely to ux of skilled workmen The influx who have nearly all eused them- selves over the inc
What used to be the "middle clary" is still where it was be fore. But the point is that the old income buys only 40 percent of what it did in 1938,
This is what As known. bolitely, as "lovelling" and "fair
shares for all."
But the sad part of it is, of course,
"THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1954.
"Grandma-whatever's making you take so long to put pussy out on a cold night like this?"
Wanted:
A NEW
ON
W
27
the
the
VISION DEFENCE
-but URGENTLY!
4
affect only
ITHIN
week lea ne
something will play a less prominent But this has been prolonged by of what Britain part in them and so will delays. something of
wanted
smaller what be and America are doing about numbers. defence. The difference in the two is disturbing.
London. future wars will be fought The R.A.F. has been going By that is meant small atomic
same in
way and that through a temporary drop in weapong which new AL
kind strength, a drop due to its being limited areas. world forces of the older
the midst of re-equipment.
in
is tict a tactical weapon or an An atom or hydrogen bomb
ideal one to use against armed The policy of incorporating forces Tactical atomic wea- pons if they are good enough, It tout armed forces. They improvements is on be necessary, but it may ro UNT be overdone, Some are due to are likely to be an outstanding "bugs" that survive the killing- deterrent against potential
due to enemy whose strength bottle. Some may be
though they are mainly in land forces. mistakes,
Earl Alexander, in Bri tain now, also hints broad- Eisenhower ly at a reorganisation based promises the highest-ever on new thinking. The time
on the air for him to give the facts seldom admitted. expenditure
not come and figures has
it has in round yel, as America, but it is close at hand.
President that it is a levelling down and not a leveling up. And, in fact, the families who have "crossed the line" are not taking on the functions and way of life of the middle class.
The working classes not much better off.
The middle classes ar much worse oft. And, there is scant Incentive to Join the middle cluss. Who
are
wants to study for live you when plumbers get more than rehvol teachers?
CIVE STABILITY
of some And it is a matter concern to sociologists as well as
economists
force, with a result mount ing to 120 wings; 22,900 aircraft. and 970,000 men. The air force has become the first arm of the United States.
Naval expenditure
is down and so are the re- sults, but the U.S. Navy will rub along with 1,078
if
Lord Alexander could only hope that the Hunter and Swifi would be coming into squadron service "soon." It is quite a wo first heard while ago that that word "soon."
Д
his speech means what it said, there is going Creation of strategic
be a big shake-up in 3
reserve. This applies most to and action on de the Army because the greater part of the Navy and RAF, is
to kdeus fence.
ships and 13,130 planes, by
The marines are down by 10,000 men.
The sociologists point out that
middle the
classes
the give society people who stability. They ore the blokes
The army suffers who
save money. fight like wildents
their It lose two divisions. educate to children, spearhead the social the end of the year reform campaigns, and generally will have provide, the brulus and
"park-
destroy
plugs for the metal machine,
Cut their security, their ability to full their fune- llón,, and A will more than likely find that you have killed the goose which lays the golden
cgg.
sions.
most.
Ry
only 17 divi-
due
to
This change is a busie review of American policy, which is in effect a new outlook on war.. Americans belleve
CYRIL FALLS
Sometime Chichele Professor
of Military History at Oxford
J
reserve. ~
П
A BALANCE
11ee
HAVE said we need to alter the pattern of defence, and that must mean altering alloco- itons to the three Services. At the same time we have to keep n balance..
Indeed, the real measure of: success in a New Look for de- fence is in blending imagination for the future with realities of the present,
Supposing we were to decide that the Army was only a
cold- war instrument and cut it down too drastically. Suppostrig America were to do the same.
What would happen? 20
airaelds on the Continent
be overrun ̈ in a week or two,
Supposing we decided
that
It is high time there was, already based on Britain or no. Air forces by themselves, how-
Alter
keep pressing further off than the Mediter- ever well. armed, would not from the Chan- The
enemy are flexible.: Britain has fallen to a low cbb ranoon, and both
Practically nel const. And once there they by comparison with the United But the Army has
would set up a variety of long- The Sintes and Russia. We have nothing in the way of lighting range devices horrible to think
keeping pace that not been
with troops-at-home, emphatically of. potential developments of war- nothing we can call a strategio: fare..
For
outpaced is
ho us to be
Lord Alexander sald more serious even than in wanted to create a small one, the obvious sense. The Com- and he is certainly right to do monwealth Forces are built so. He did not say it was mainly on a British model and exactly a long-term project, borne aircraft, that can keep British practice. That is an but I am pretty sure it cannon: the convoy routes open. advantage
but it be a short one. in itself. means that if our defence of date theirs bo as much
THE GHOST GOES FOR SAME BOOK
By J. W. Taylor
IN the Yorkshire Museum, moving and dropping the Alder policy falls out
more.
the Navy belonged to the past and lopped it too hard, we ahould be in equal trouble. We should starve, because it is still only the Navy, with its ship-
'IMAGINATION
A thorough review, of our 30 or oven 4 naval construction pro at York, there is a book men's antiquities book. The at-will
gramme. We hear of the small tendant avows that he has seen called: "Antiquities and the
und ships
done. We straight
craft needed for. LOT has been thing shuffle
My Curiosities of the Church", through a locked door in the
point 19. that we are anti-submarino: war, That is A realise that if, for instance, time, due for a New Look. All de well because they are of vital wo look back to the one of several books former library.
slightly different importance.
shortly after the war, when wo Says Mr Jonas: "On the last signera havé ly belonging to Alderman
on New Looks and on
really had no Army at all búf occasion it was due six of us ideas Edward Wooller, a Darling waited. No one was nearer than what the principal points in
only hundreds of thousands of ton solicitor and antiquary, ove feet to Alderman Wooller's them should be,
young men in training. who collapsed and died at a book on the shell. Suddenly wo mooting many years ago. it amazed when it her consideration-urgent considera- WE hear of carriers Atting out.
from among the other has the Alderman's busi by an unseen hand and ness card pasted inside it..
pulled
dropped on the floor. Among those who saw it happen were my doctor and my soilcitor. We did not then see the ghost itself, and I am disturbed by it
I submit the following for
ion
I think the
of
SHIPS SCARCE
alow
But it has still fallen short, not in terms of money and mon Again, well because, despite so much as in imagination. the controversies about carriers, • for the there still pen to be jobs Casc
When people tacklo According to Muscum alten
R.A.F. getting rather more which carrier borne aircraft and steady pull, which our de dant George Jenas and five
the available men, money can do best, or even which they. fence, effort has had to be, they other witnesses, the "ghost" of. Alderman Wooller has mani su 130 Ruppening was 'uncunny, and equipment has become un- alone can do-and "these jobs arò apt to get so inimersed in answerable. All three fighting tested Uself in the library with
The experience has to affect Services are needed to averta are not all for the Navy alone it that they keep their eyes on
bik moliculous punctuality at twenty
war of fight in it it it but for the general cause, ed Mr
Mr Jonas that he has boen
should come. minutes to eight at night every off work ill for three weeks, weapons. fourth Sunday, cased the book having lost over a stong in out of the shelf and dropped it weight, and has now been taken weapons. That is where the big
off duty at his own request for advances have been made,
on the floor.
It is this same book every; the Sundays when the apparl- the only occasions on is due. He is glad, how- won the ghost is into are ever, that other people have during Summer Tinto when the manifestations dry dietly one seen it
Mr Jonara doctor, who do
But
Bro
trail.
the new But behind what is already You cannot look on the trail primarily air in the water, already launched, it is no good one man taking a and the horizon at once. And the Navy has precious little on look every now and then, be-
cause tio may not understand: A building holiday, has a big what: hay seen without others to anag in it. Booner or later & Interpret 18. ap blank phase comes round in some
IN THE AIR
the stocks.
which
existing material The American programme Admittedly, the RAF has fring and replacements are and American military thinking Hour: hop
Strict
irs today #héruld be a spurs. Mr Jonas Brst saw the appari. stres to remain anonymous but been apt to get impatient with locking.
But the
Capur "In in tibes in the form of an old man vill ha of the six keeping the older rice and to naval building vigil, states:;:!") was absolute- Imagine it can i on jobs that" sary, but. It is
Inven with side whiskers and wearing by Incredible Without a doubt 1 a not yet for Yet it to aband
Which and the book was fched out of the has a strong came for, reinforcojo
"Khalf and dropped on the floor: ment--Inki proment, conditional
Ulice
four", besering tint was not of above all; !
thle
the matter
AN
be neces
ngerous
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